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Your new iPhone 15 suffering from screen burn-in? Apple has some good news for you

Screen burn-in is usually a hardware problem. Not this time, it seems.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor
iPhone 15 Pro in Blue Titanium, taken by iPhone 15 Pro Max
Jason Hiner/ZDNET

The iPhone 15 launch has been plagued with bugs, from overheating issues to charging problems, and more overheating issues. But there has been another issue that has had some owners worried that they would have to carry out a warranty exchange on their brand new iPhone -- screen burn-in.

Also: Flipper Zero can be used to crash iPhones running iOS 17, but there's a way to foil the attack

Screen burn-in is an effect where a visual echo of on-screen elements such as icons, wallpaper, keyboards, and other user interface elements remains on the display after you've navigated to a different display. 

It's a problem that can affect OLED displays such as those found on the iPhone 15 Pro line, and the discoloration is usually permanent -- which is bad news.

But this time, it seems that the screen burn-in issue that iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max users are experiencing is not a hardware issue and instead is down to a software bug. And even better news is that this will be fixed with the imminent release of iOS 17.1.

Also: iPhone 15 Pro overheating: Thermal photos before and after iOS 17.0.3

In fact, the iOS 17.1 RC (release candidate) pushed out to developers fixes this and a whole raft of other bugs, at least according to the release notes:

  • Option to choose a specific album to use with Photo Shuffle on the Lock Screen.
  • Home key support for Matter locks.
  • Improved reliability of Screen Time settings syncing across devices.
  • Fixes an issue that may cause the Significant Location privacy setting to reset when transferring an Apple Watch or pairing it for the first time.
  • Resolves an issue where the names of incoming callers may not appear when you are on another call.
  • Addresses an issue where custom and purchased ringtones may not appear as options for your text tone.
  • Fixes an issue that may cause the keyboard to be less responsive.
  • Crash detection optimizations (all iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 models).
  • Fixes an issue that may cause display image persistence.

iOS 17.1 will land any day now, so keep your eyes peeled. 

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